A holiday park was fined $475,000 over a falling branch
The operator was not convicted of getting an assessment wrong. They were convicted of not having one — and 137 of 277 trees turned out to need work.
Read the article →
Trees over your workplace — what the WHS Act 2011 actually requires
Section 19 covers the whole work environment, not the building line. What “reasonably practicable” means for tree risk, and the four things that close the gap.
Read the article →What does a QTRA tree risk report cost in Queensland?
Quotes vary by a factor of five for what sounds like the same document. What the market charges, what moves the number, and the one question worth asking every quote.
Read the article →QTRA vs TRAQ vs VALID — which method is better in SE Queensland?
They aim to do the same job and work very differently. The research says accuracy is not the difference — so here is what is.
Read the article →How to tell if a eucalyptus tree is structurally unsafe
Eucalypts do not drop limbs for no reason. They drop them for reasons, and many of those reasons are visible from the ground.
Read the article →Strata and body corporate tree risk in QLD — who is liable?
The tree is almost always the body corporate’s. The question is whether the committee knew, or ought to have known — and whether it acted.
Read the article →The QTRA probability score — how one number changes every tree decision
Most assessments produce an opinion. QTRA produces a number — and the difference shows up most clearly when you are trying to keep a tree, not remove one.
Read the article →
Post-fire widow makers — the secondary failure risk after a burn
The fire is out, the smoke has cleared, the threat has visibly passed — and the trees are still failing, without warning, for weeks.
Read the article →Mapping firefighter exclusion zones before a prescribed burn
Exclusion zones run to a minimum of two tree lengths — a 60-metre radius for a 30-metre gum. The geometry surprises most people the first time they draw it.
Read the article →
Aged care and retirement villages — tree risk and duty of care
Target occupancy drives QTRA results, and aged care sites have the highest of any residential setting — with a population least able to move out of the way.
Read the article →Post-storm tree assessment — the 48-hour secondary failure window
Root plates move without the tree going over. Hung limbs come down in still air. And the survivors of a group are carrying loads they never adapted to.
Read the article →Pre-purchase tree inspection — what building reports miss
Your building inspector did not miss the tree. Assessing it was never inside the scope — AS 4349.1 excludes landscaping explicitly.
Read the article →
Pre-burn hazard tree assessment — what QLD fire crews need
A hazard tree in a burn zone does not fail on a convenient timeline. The dangerous window is mop-up and re-entry, when crews are on the ground and tired.
Read the article →Post-fire re-entry — clearing a property safely before crews go in
The urgency is real and it runs directly against the fact that the hazard population is still changing. A six-step zoned clearance process.
Read the article →
Tree risk assessment in Australia — what QTRA is, and who needs one
The duty to manage tree risk is enforceable. The qualification to assess it is not regulated at all. That gap is worth understanding first.
Read the article →BAL assessment and your trees — what the rating doesn’t tell you
A BAL rating is a construction standard. It tells a builder how to build — not which of your trees is going to come down across the driveway.
Read the article →No articles in that category yet.